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National law and policies on minimum ages – Germany

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/83/Add.7, 24 July 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/11/Add.5, 16 September 1994
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From initial report
13. […] the rights and obligations of children and juveniles by age group are summarized in the following […]
(d) At the age of six: (i) Children are required to attend school (the cut-off date is always the first day of June). The obligation to attend full-time schools continues for 9 or, respectively, 10 years (education acts or, respectively, compulsory education acts of the Länder); […]
(j) At the age of 15: (i) Ends the period of compulsory schooling in most of the Länder (education acts or, respectively, compulsory education acts of the Länder); […]
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
850. Since the 1997 amendment to the Act [Second Act to Amend the Youth Health and Safety at Work Act], a young person within the meaning of this Act is someone over 15 but not yet 18. The provisions that apply to children also apply to young people who are subject to full-time mandatory schooling.
851. The employment of children continues to be prohibited by the law. This prohibition does not apply to work for the purposes of occupational therapy, within the context of a school work experience programme or in fulfilling instructions from a judge.
852. Children under 13 may be employed only with an express exemption by the authorities and with parental permission, but only at certain events in the cultural and media spheres if the necessary protective measures are guaranteed. Once a child is over 4 years old it can be allowed to participate in musical events and similar events as well as the associated rehearsals for up to a total of two hours per day. Once a child is over 7 years old it can be allowed to participate in theatrical performances for up to four hours per day and in musical performances, etc. for up to three hours per day.
853. Once children are over 14 years old they may be employed without official permission if permission has been given by their guardian and the work is light and suitable for them. According to the legal definition only work that has no negative impact on the safety, health or development of the children, nor on their school attendance, their involvement in measures for choosing a future career or vocational training and their ability to follow lessons with benefit, shall be considered “light”. Jobs that correspond to the physical and intellectual development level of the children or young people in mandatory full-time schooling are suitable. Time spent on jobs of this kind must not exceed two hours per day or three hours on family farms. The children may be employed only in the time from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., not before and not during school hours, for no more than five days in the week; they may not be given hazardous work, e.g. with dangerous substances and biological materials, and they may not be given piecework or work depending on speed. Deviating from these regulations, young people in mandatory fulltime schooling may work for a maximum of four weeks per calendar year in the school holidays.
854. The Federal Government passed the Ordinance on Protection Against Child Labour of 23 June 1998 to define the light work that is suitable for children. According to this, the usual and socially recognized activities are allowed, such as delivering newspapers and magazines, help in private households, taking messages and going shopping, babysitting, giving private lessons, helping with sport and help in agriculture. Employment in the commercial sector, in manufacturing or in trade will still not be allowed in the future. Work of this kind is not reasonable for children and young people of this age.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From initial report
13 […] the rights and obligations of children and juveniles by age group are summarized in the following […]
(k) At the age of 16:
(i) A juvenile can, upon application, be granted permission to marry;
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From initial report
100. Pursuant to article 40, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the States parties are called upon to establish a minimum age below which children shall be presumed not to have the capacity to infringe the penal law. This requirement is met under German law by section 19 of the Criminal Code, from which it follows that a child under the age of 14 has no capacity to infringe the penal law.
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/83/Add.7, 24 July 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/11/Add.5, 16 September 1994